News

Quick Reads Literacy Campaign with JoJo Moyes

Midas was appointed by The Reading Agency to promote the life-changing adult literacy programme Quick Reads. The scheme relaunched in 2020 after a philanthropic gift from Jojo Moyes, with six bitesize books from a stellar line-up of authors including Adam Kay and Candice Carty Williams – all designed to engage emerging adult readers.

Midas was briefed to execute a bold, intelligent and creative national media campaign that would engage consumers and stakeholders, and encourage more people to buy, borrow and read more books. Our objectives were to raise widespread awareness of the national crisis in adult literacy and the wider impact this has on the economy, positioning Quick Reads as a vital part of the solution and showcasing the high-profile authors and their brilliantly engaging stories.

Our strategy comprised of two strands of activity; firstly reaching potential readers to drive sales and engagement by celebrating the authors/titles, and by using case studies of people that had developed reading confidence through the programme; the second was focused on advocacy and raising awareness of the literary crisis to key stakeholders, decision makers and within the trade, with a view to securing the financial future of the programme.

We kickstarted media outreach with an early title reveal coinciding with International Literacy Day, to pique media interest, industry support and consumer anticipation. Mindful of keeping our power mostly dry, we gave The Observer an exclusive with comment from Jojo and focused on trade and book bloggers. A second early push followed with Jojo’s new book and we dovetailed Quick Reads messaging in interviews on BBC Breakfast and ITV Lunchtime News.

For publication, we prioritised author media time to fulfil high-profile broadcast opportunities from ITV News to Radio 2 Graham Norton, and leveraged Jojo’s involvement for interviews across national newspapers and mags. We targeted a consumer audience through lifestyle and regional publications and working with The Reading Agency to develop a bank of case studies with strong, personal stories that could inspire other emerging readers. Alongside this activity, we engaged industry champions to help take us take the story of Quick Reads to the wider world through social media, where we encouraged publishers, authors, journalists and bloggers to be vocal about their support for the programme.

We delivered a strong broadcast showing with over 16 pieces including a syndicated interview across all ITV News regionals alongside Sky News, BBC Breakfast BBC Radio 2: Graham Norton; Good Morning Sunday, BBC Radio 5: Sarah Brett, BBC Asian Network and Scala Radio: Simon Mayo. We secured placement in several national newspapers including Daily Mail, Sun, Guardian, Observer and Express as well as reaching a less traditional book buying audience through interviews and reviews in lifestyle and women’s interest outlets including Chat, Pick Me Up,Heat, My Weekly, Bella and Prima.

Alongside this activity we arranged launch events at Liverpool Central Library and Waterstones Piccadilly, which we gave extension and legacy to via complementary social media, blogger and influencer activity.